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Post subject: What is Wicca???
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Contrary to what those who choose to persecute or lie about us wish to believe, Wicca is a very peaceful, harmonious and balanced way of thinking and life which promotes oneness with the divine and all which exists.
Wicca is a deep appreciation and awe in watching the sunrise or sunset, the forest in the light of a glowing moon, a meadow enchanted by the first light of day. It is the morning dew on the petals of a beautiful flower, the gentle caress of a warm summer breeze upon your skin, or the warmth of the summer sun on your face. Wicca is the fall of colorful autumn leaves, and the softness of winter snow. It is light, and shadow and all that lies in between. It is the song of the birds and other creatures of the wild. It is being in the presence of Mother Earths nature and being humbled in reverence. When we are in the temple of the Lord and Lady, we are not prone to the arrogance of human technology as they touch our souls. To be a Witch is to be a healer, a teacher, a seeker, a giver, and a protector of all things. If this path is yours, may you walk it with honor, light and integrity.
Wicca is a belief system and way of life based upon the reconstruction of pre-Christian traditions originating in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
While much of the information of how our ancestors lived, worshiped and believed has been lost due to the efforts of the medieval church to wipe our existence from history, we try to reconstruct those beliefs to the best of our ability with the information that is available.
Thanks to archaeological discoveries, we now have basis to believe that the origins of our belief system can be traced even further back to the Paleolithic peoples who worshipped a Hunter God and a Fertility Goddess. With the discovery of these cave paintings, estimated to be around 30,000 years old, depicting a man with the head of a stag, and a pregnant woman standing in a circle with eleven other people, it can reasonably be assumed that Witchcraft is one of the oldest belief systems known in the world toady.
These archetypes are clearly recognized by Wiccan as our view of the Goddess and God aspect of the supreme creative force and predate Christianity by roughly 28,000 years making it a mere toddler in the spectrum of time as we know it.
Witchcraft
Witchcraft in ancient history was known as "The Craft of the Wise" because most who followed the path were in tune with the forces of nature, had a knowledge of Herbs and medicines, gave council and were valuable parts of the village and community as Shamanic healers and leaders. They understood that mankind is not superior to nature, the earth and its creatures but instead we are simply one of the many parts, both seen and unseen that combine to make the whole. As Chief Seattle said; "We do not own the earth, we are part of it." These wise people understood that what we take or use, we must return in kind to maintain balance and equilibrium. Clearly, modern man with all his applied learning and technology has forgotten this. Subsequently, we currently face ecological disaster and eventual extinction because of our hunger for power and a few pieces of gold.
For the past several hundred years, the image of the Witch has been mistakenly associated with evil, heathenism, and unrighteousness. In my humble opinion, these misconceptions have their origin in a couple of different places.
Witchcraft is a spiritual system that fosters the free thought and will of the individual, encourages learning and an understanding of the earth and nature thereby affirming the divinity in all living things. Most importantly however, it teaches responsibility. We accept responsibility for our actions and deeds as clearly a result of the choices we make. We do not blame an exterior entity or being for our shortcomings, weaknesses or mistakes. If we mess up or do something that brings harm to another, we have no one but ourselves to blame and we must face the consequences resulting from those actions. No ifs, ands or buts and no whining...
We acknowledge the cycles of nature, the lunar phases and the seasons to celebrate our spirituality and to worship the divine. It is a belief system that allows the Witch to work with, not in supplication to deities with the intent of living in harmony and achieving balance with all things.
The spells that we do involve healing, love, harmony, wisdom and creativity. The potions that we stir might be a headache remedy, a cold tonic, or an herbal flea bath for our pets. We strive to gain knowledge of and use the natural remedies placed on this earth by the divine for our benefit instead of using synthetic drugs unless absolutely necessary.
Wiccan believe that the spirit of the One, Goddess and God exist in all things. In the trees, rain, flowers, the sea, in each other and all of natures creatures. This means that we must treat "all things" of the Earth as aspects of the divine. We attempt to honor and respect life in all its many manifestations both seen and unseen.
What Witchcraft is NOT
Witchcraft or Wicca is not a cult. We do not proclaim ourselves to be spokespersons for the divine or try to get others to follow us as their leaders.
We do not worship Satan or consort with Demons. Satan is a Christian creation and they can keep him. We do not need a paranoid creation of supreme evil and eternal damnation to scare us into doing the right thing and helping others. We choose to do the right thing and love our brothers and sisters because it IS the right thing and it feels good to do it. I suppose it is a maturity thing.
We do not sacrifice animals or humans because that would violate our basic tenant of "Harm None." Anyone who does and claims to be a Wiccan or a Witch is lying.
We have no need to steal or control the life force of another to achieve mystical or supernatural powers. We draw our energy from within, our personal relationship with the divine and nature.
We do not use the forces of nature or the universe to hex or cast spells on others. Again, "Harm None" is the whole of the law.
Witches have a very strict belief in the Law of Three which states that whatever we send out into our world shall return to us three fold either good or bane. With this in mind, a "True Witch" would hesitate in doing magick to harm or manipulate another because that boomerang we throw will eventually come back to us much larger and harder then when we threw it.
This is not to say that Witches are perfect, we are human too just like everyone else and make mistakes and errors in judgment. Just as there are parents who love and nurture their children, there are parents who abuse their children. As there are many who devote their lives to giving and helping mankind, likewise there are those who devote their lives to taking advantage of and using people for their own gain. Unfortunately the same flaws in human nature applies to witches too.
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 Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:42 pm |
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| Wow great find geri i can see some of my personal ideas are congruent with many of these ideas...i loved the devil the chritainas can keep him lol....I hope Nova and Dark post I'd like to know more..... |
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| Tue Apr 04, 2006 2:16 am |
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| sheri berri wrote: | | Wow great find geri i can see some of my personal ideas are congruent with many of these ideas...i loved the devil the chritainas can keep him lol....I hope Nova and Dark post I'd like to know more..... |
Dark will post up the real version of Wicca....I posted something I found on line but he knows the real deal..I look forward to his input |
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| Tue Apr 04, 2006 2:39 am |
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| Kool I can't wait... wicca berri's now imagine that geri lol |
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| Tue Apr 04, 2006 2:58 am |
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| sheri berri wrote: | | Kool I can't wait... wicca berri's now imagine that geri lol |
I know LOL its great.. 
As for christian Berris ummm Im not sure there ever will be :? |
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| Tue Apr 04, 2006 3:00 am |
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Here it is... Wicca is a modern religion developed in the '50s by Gerald Gardner with his book Witchcraft Today 1954.
| Quote: | Wicca
Gardner claimed to have been initiated in 1939 into a tradition of religious witchcraft that he believed to be a continuation of European Paganism. Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner's priestesses, later identified the woman who initiated Garder as Dorothy Clutterbuck in a book published by Janet and Stewart Farrar. This identification was based on references Valiente remembered Gardner making to a woman he called "Old Dorothy". Scholar Ronald Hutton instead argues in his Triumph of the Moon that Gardner's witchcraft tradition was largely the inspiration of members of the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship and especially a woman known by the "magical name" of Dafo. Dr Leo Ruickbie in his Witchcraft Out of the Shadows analysed the documentary evidence and concluded that Aleister Crowley played a cruicial role in inspiring Gardner to establish a new pagan religion. Ruickbie, Hutton, and others, further argue that much of what has been published of Gardnerian Wicca, as Gardner's practice came to be known by, was written by Doreen Valiente, Aleister Crowley and also contains borrowings from other identifiable sources.
Etymology
Gardner, in his two books on the subject, referred to religious witchcraft as "Wica", or "The Craft". Gardner's spelling was quickly replaced by usage of "Wicca". In Old English, a "Wicca" is a male necromancer, "Wicce" a female one, and "Wiccae", is the plural form, "necromancers" [2]. Historical use of the word "Wicca" as any sort of religion is unsupported by etymology. The verb form, "wiccian", which means "to practice witchcraft", does not appear in Gardner's written material, and is not commonly used in literature about the religious movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gardner
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Gardner of course only lit the fire. Wicca went on to become much more than Gardner's vision.
Gardner didn't write the Wiccan reed that came later.
| Quote: | Coughlin writes that: "The first recorded mention of the Wiccan Rede in the eight-word form popular today, at least that I have been able to discover thus far, was in a speech by Doreen Valiente on October 3, 1964 at what may have been the first witches' dinner organized in modern history. The event was sponsored by 'Pentagram,' a quarterly newsletter and 'witchcraft review' started and published by Gerard Noel in 1964:"
"Demanding tolerance between covens as well as toward the outside world, Doreen spoke the Anglo-Saxon witch formula called the Wiccan Rede or wise teaching: 'Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfil, An' it harm none, do what ye will'." 7
http://www.religioustolerance.org/wicrede.htm |
That being said Wicca has gone through many changes since and has become a well grounded faith and works very will for many people.
I find the books of Scott Cunningham to be a great source for anyone wishing to explore that form of witchcraft.
Here is a site by Isaac Bonewits that list varsous froms of Witchcraft.
http://www.neopagan.net/Witchcraft-Classifying.html
Sorry about all the cut and paste. I didn't have time to do a lot of typing on the subject today but this is a start of who are interested.
There is tons and tons of information on Wicca on the web some is good a lot is bad. Some I think comes from teenagers who make it up as they go a long.
Blessings of the Cyber God |
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| Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:32 pm |
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| thankyou for the links darkwind :razz: |
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| Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:27 am |
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wicca also has a certain amount of things that they do or follow...such as do no harm to others...where as from the little that would be accurate about witchcraft of the past there would have been no such overall rule....things like making a circle ect are wicca not from anything other then that.....although the idea is beautiful and loving the earth and nature is very important wicca usually follows a single idea or deity where again witches of the past may have had multiple....there are many people who switch from a religioun such as christianity and the one deity makes it easier for them.....
just a few bits of info |
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| Thu Apr 06, 2006 11:26 pm |
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| How long does it take to be a witch??? |
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| Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:59 pm |
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| For Wiccans a year and a day. |
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| Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:39 pm |
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| Darkwind wrote: | | For Wiccans a year and a day. |
So you must be wiccan to be able to become a witch? its not anyone's game?? |
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| Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:13 pm |
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| to become a witch? i suppose it depends on the person....but no known time frame truly exists as far as i know |
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| Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:11 am |
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quick question: can anyone simplify the beliefs of wiccans into a basic explanation of what they believe and what gods/goddesses they follow? i've always been quite confused about that. i know it has to do with nature and with not harming anyone, etc, but the rest is kind of blurry to me. thanks!
Rose
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"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible" -Oscar Wilde
7/22/04 |
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| Tue Apr 18, 2006 4:36 am |
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IMO you become a Witch when you get the first spell to work. First you have to study and practice. It takes some understanding of how the Universe functions and how you interact with it. It took me about six months to get that first spell to work. When you get into Witch craft you find it is a never ending education. If your not a life long learner forget it you won't make it in the craft.
Most Gardnean Wiccans believe you must be a Wiccan and go through their teaching to be a Witch. Since Witchcraft pre-dates Gardnean Wicca I would say that is bull.
I am not a practicing Wiccan though I know the Wiccan belief system I don't have time right now to go into it (It is rather complex) maybe one of the practicing Wiccans can help out.
NOVA........NOVA...... Come here and help these people. |
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| Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:54 pm |
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Personally Wicca is not something that I choose to follow.....as I read about it I almost thought umm ok I don't get it....
but as far as I know wicca follows a monolithic god idea as does christianity
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| Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:47 pm |
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